09 August 2008

The Journey continues... on thejourney.me







After less than 3 weeks of blogging on blogspot.com I am happy to announce that "The Journey.." have found a new home!

Thejourney.me is now open, although not fully up to my standards yet I am still working on it trying to improve it everyday!

This is the last blog entry here; from now on you can continue to follow my journey to a better body there.

Note: All previous blog entries and comments can be found on the new site as well.

08 August 2008

Working on an improvement..

Last night's workout was lighter than usual due to my illness, I did light full body workout without any cardio... I did get my meals in though.

Today and since I am feeling a bit better I have been working on improving this blog, I'm working on a new look and some additions, I'll let you know when its ready (it may take a while..)

Until then remember: Stay storng and shed hard.

Morale: 6

07 August 2008

Not feeling well..

It sure took me long enough to post today and I'm sorry but it will be a short one, I am not feeling well today which might explain the irregular sleeping patterns I've been experiencing lately.

Last night's workout was ok, I did a short but very exhausting HIIT cardio for 12 mins, it felt like a whole hour both in effort and seat amount! I also ate my 5 meals in time so it was a good day.

I'll try to talk more on tomorrow's post if I am feeling better.

Morale: 6

06 August 2008

Setting your goals..

Many of the people I know and get to know are interested in improving how they look, achieve greater fitness levels or just adjust their lifestyles to adopt healthier ones, all of them have the correct thing in mind but very few actually take the time to sit down and write down their goals and their plans to achieve it, that by itself may very well lead to failure especially if it is something they didn't attempt and succeed in before and here is why:

"failure to plan is a plan to failure" it have been said before, to achieve your goal you must first know your goal and know how to measure your success in your attempt to achieve it, leaving things loose will make you unable to see where you are and where you're going! Goal setting is not that hard really, do it right and you'll be amazed but how clear your view would be of what you want to achieve and how close are you to it, here is an example:

Someone may say: "I'm an overweight man who wants to lose weight and become muscular"

from that statement we know that:

1. The person is currently overweight, but that is not enough! we need actual numbers such as the current weight in kg/lb, body fat % or even pants size.

2. The person wants to lose weight, the first question would be: How much weight? 10 kg? 20? 30? drop fat % by 10%? or do you want to lose enough weight to fit in your old size 32" pants? you must be precise.

3. The person wants to become muscular, how muscular? Like Arnold? Like Arnel? define how much lean mass you want to put in and where.

The more precise you are about your goal the more you can visualize it and see it in front of you when you work hard to reach for it.

In general do the following in preparation of your goals:

Write on a piece of paper (write DON'T type) the following goals:

1. Your Ultimate Goal (the goal that is not easy to reach but once reached you'd be at the peak of your happiness in regards with fitness)
2. Your 1-year goal (The goal you want to achieve one year after you started following your plan)
3. Your 3-months goal (the goals you want to achieve each 3 coming months)
4. Your weekly goal (be it upping your cardio by 1 km/h or lifting 5 more pounds just write it)
5. Your daily goal (example: do 30 mins cardio and eat 5 meals)

Now place this paper somewhere where you can see it on daily basis (I have mine on the fridge!), and by all means change your goals as much as you like but don't set them too easy or impossible be realistic and push yourself harder with each week/month, you will be amazed.

Finally, Go easy at the beginning, don't start at the top, know that the best athletes started at the bottom at some point, if you can't do 45 mins of cardio 7 days per week at 10 km/h then don't! start at 20 mins at 6 km/h 3 days/week and increase the speed, time and days as the week go by, you will find yourself exceeding your initial plan as you develope endurance and cardiovascular fitness, take things one step at a time and you will be sprinting soon enough.


Before I conclude today's post here is an update about last night's workout:
It was a good workout, I did 20 mins of High Intensity Cardio and full body weight training, I've also stuck with my 5 meals.

For all of you who are reading this for motivation know that I once thought I couldn't, once I stopped thinking that way things changed, you should do the same because believe it or not you can, its a matter of wanting it bad enough to go through and getting it. Stay strong and Shed hard!

Morale: 7

05 August 2008

The storm lies behind..

Funny thing is, every time I sit down to type a day's post I forget about all the cool things I wanted to talk about whole day. Yesterday wasn't the best of days; the lack of good sleep I went through the night before resulted in me ending up with low energy levels and somehow feeling sickish, that have caused me to skip my cardio training for the day, and it does feel terrible I assure you. I did -however- manage to do some crunches and push-ups as an effort to end the day with something! I did stick to my meals but had few almonds as a snack as well.

I know this is one of many hard days to come, in fact this is nothing when I think about it, when you take a journey expect bumps along the road and some stormy days, but keep in mind that the storm will lift and the sun will rise and so would your spirit.

This is a song I used to listen to long time ago when I feel down, it is silly but helps lighted my mood most of the times, enjoy the song, stay strong and never give up!




Morale: 4

04 August 2008

Whats for breakfast?

Last night's workout wasn't bad, I did my cardio and full body weight training but I did however overwork my triceps a bit, nothing serious though. I've stuck to my 5 meals and avoided any snacks and managed to drink enough water for the day, for some reason though I couldn't get a peaceful sleep, I kept waking up multiple times during the night which resulted in me waking up this morning with less energy...

Today I'll talk about Kellogg's® Special K® Low Carb Lifestyle Protein Plus cereal which I use in my breakfast.

I really li
ke how it tastes, the best thing about it is low sugar content and generally low carb to protein ratio, I usually grab 2-3 of those when I shop at Sultan Center and mix it with protein shake. It is basically one of the best cereals I would use on my low carb diet, I would use it as a meal at work when I run out of other options or when I know that I didn't prepare 2 meals for (10:00AM and 01:00 PM) I'd use it to fill the gap until I come back home and get my 4th meal for the day. The Nutrition facts label to right is the one you'd find on the box when you purchase it, it should give you an indicator of how much calories you'd get per serving .

Thats all for today, untill tomorrow's post remember, Stay strong & shed hard!

Morale:6

03 August 2008

You are what you eat...

Yesterday's workout was very good, I did 45 mins of cardio and did some weight training for arms mostly. I -however- didn't like my eating routine, I had a good bit of nuts in addition to meal timings being off, that cost me a point in the JSF challenge.

Again, as more friends and family members ask me about nutrition and what to eat and what not to eat, I've decided to make a post at least once a week to talk about foods that I've been eating that I believe that they're good, the good thing about this idea is that I will talk about products that we all can find locally in groceries around us, I also -as always- welcome any comments containing advice based on personal or professional experience in addition to constructive criticism.

At the end of today's post I want to say that I am extremely overwhelmed and very happy about the enthusiasm I have been observing in people around me who wish (just like me) to start their own journey towards their dream bodies, to you guys I would to say that I wish you all well and have patience good things come to those who wait. Stay strong and shed hard.
Morale:7

02 August 2008

Going "Nuts"..?

Yesterday's workout was good, 45 mins morning fasted cario + 40 mins of full body workout at night. I've noticed that I've been crunching down a good bit of almonds and *gasp* a few Macadamia nuts even! Since I haven't found a better snack option I've stuck with nuts to fill in those gaps in my appetite between meals and they have been effective, although dense in fat they sure beat sweets to do the job. I've stuck to all my meals so I can proudly say I passed yesterday with 100 points. Stay strong and keep your goal in mind!
Morale: 8

01 August 2008

The John Stone August Challenge

Today marks the first day in John Stone's August 2008 Challenge; the challenge is basically nothing more than a motivational method to encourage people to stick to their fitness plans in terms of meals and workouts. I've registered in the challenge and you should be able followup my progress in this thread (forum registration may be necessary)

Here is how John managed to transform his body throughout 371 days of dedication (prepare to be amazed):


Back to last night's progress, I had a light workout consisting of 30 mins of fasted cardio and 25 mins of arm (Biceps, Triceps and forearms) wight workout. I had some strange chocolate craving after my 3rd meal, it could not have been due to the fact that I ran out of new favorite snack (the 85% chocolate bars), I think I'll hunt for some later this week. Today is the family gathering day; Fridays used to be my glutton festival day back before I took control of my life, now its pretty easy picking the good foods and skipping deserts, the only thing I might do there (which I consider cheating) is eat a couple of bananas or some other fruit and that does tend to make me feel guilty sometimes due to their sugar content.

As always, stay strong and shed hard!

Morale: 7